SPOILERS Night Watch Discussion *spoilers*
- Thread starter Tonyblack
- Start date
Hello,
what exactly means " Besides, I know she's been up in Small Gods these past ten years. " (around page 110)
in Czech translation it says young Sam's mom is dead and buried at the cemetery of Small Gods,
which doesn't make any sense why is he trying to get his older self home for visit, tee and food.
thank you
what exactly means " Besides, I know she's been up in Small Gods these past ten years. " (around page 110)
in Czech translation it says young Sam's mom is dead and buried at the cemetery of Small Gods,
which doesn't make any sense why is he trying to get his older self home for visit, tee and food.
thank you
Welcome to the site, sleam! 
You are talking about Nightwatch I assume? Older Sam is talking about his mother in his time having been dead for ten years and buried in Small Gods Cemetery. When he goes back in time, the younger version of his mother is still alive. He doesn't want to see her because he wants to remember her how she was and would probably find meeting her unsettling after having seen her dead.
Young Sam wanting older Sam to meet her has more to do with young Sam being naïve and not understanding that taking your sergeant home was not the sort of thing you would do.
You are talking about Nightwatch I assume? Older Sam is talking about his mother in his time having been dead for ten years and buried in Small Gods Cemetery. When he goes back in time, the younger version of his mother is still alive. He doesn't want to see her because he wants to remember her how she was and would probably find meeting her unsettling after having seen her dead.
Young Sam wanting older Sam to meet her has more to do with young Sam being naïve and not understanding that taking your sergeant home was not the sort of thing you would do.
The first time I read “Night Watch” I liked it but couldn’t get many things because when published in Spanish I already didn’t remember a lot about the other Watch books, but now that I’m rereading the whole series I’ve love it for many reasons that you have already said.
At the beginning it’s like… What happens with Carrot, Detritus and all the guys? I wanted to read about them! But during the book I appreciated learning more about other characters past like for example Nobby. When knowing all the things his father did him… I couldn’t believe it. It caught my breath reading this:
It’s a miracle that after all Nobby has his little heart.
I loved the nonstop surprising things that happen all the time: the time travel, how Vimes takes charge of the situation and helps the barricades, the promotions of Carcer, the end…
As you’ve said, NW is not one of the funniest novels, the criticisms to how the government and conspiracies work are hard, but I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing with parts like this:
Amazing, isn’t it? Could be more said in so less?
And The Beast… Wow, Pratchett perfectly reflects this animal part that all of us have inside when we get angry and hate.
What else can I say? I’m anxious to reread “Thud!”.
Mx
At the beginning it’s like… What happens with Carrot, Detritus and all the guys? I wanted to read about them! But during the book I appreciated learning more about other characters past like for example Nobby. When knowing all the things his father did him… I couldn’t believe it. It caught my breath reading this:
It’s a miracle that after all Nobby has his little heart.
I loved the nonstop surprising things that happen all the time: the time travel, how Vimes takes charge of the situation and helps the barricades, the promotions of Carcer, the end…
As you’ve said, NW is not one of the funniest novels, the criticisms to how the government and conspiracies work are hard, but I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing with parts like this:
Amazing, isn’t it? Could be more said in so less?
And The Beast… Wow, Pratchett perfectly reflects this animal part that all of us have inside when we get angry and hate.
What else can I say? I’m anxious to reread “Thud!”.
Mx
I apollogize in advance if this is common knowledge, but did you know there is a difference between US and UK versions in these books? There is a bit of text, I think it was in one of the speeches Sweeper gives to Vimes, that goes different in the two versions. I first noticed it a couple of years ago when a German site listing translation errors in Discworld books pointed this out. They were quite puzzled about it, and since I have the US version of Night Watch, I was able to check, and it is true. Does anybody have the full text from both versions? I'm affraid I don't have the British version of NW. =)
Not just Night Watch. There are significant differences between the US and UK versions of The Truth.
The only differences I found in a quick look-through are fairly small, though not insignificant.
US h/c edition p.198 "...some kind of time shifters? I'd get locked up!"
UK h/c edition p.216 "...some kind of time shifters? I'd get locked up! Who are you, anyway?"
US h/c p.200 "Astonishing," said Qu. "I don't know how you manage it."
UK h/c p.219 "Astonishing," said Qu. "He's part of the pattern now. I don't know how you manage it."
Here, Vimes has just been given back his cigar case by the dancing monks:
US h/c p.214 "The world moved. Vimes still felt like a drifting ship. But at the end of the tether there was now the tug of the anchor, pulling the ship around so that it faced the current."
UK h/c p.233 "The world moved. But now Vimes no longer felt like a drifting ship. Now, he felt the tug of the anchor, pulling him round to face the rising tide."
The "rising tide" has more meaning in context, as it is during the barricade-building scene, and the rising tide of resistance is happening.
That sort of thing is the reason I have bought both editions for some years now. It's getting harder to get the UK hardcovers now, and the last few I checked were identical. I'm hoping that the US editors have realized how foolish it is to make those little "I'm proving I'm an editor" changes, but it's a faint hope.
The only differences I found in a quick look-through are fairly small, though not insignificant.
US h/c edition p.198 "...some kind of time shifters? I'd get locked up!"
UK h/c edition p.216 "...some kind of time shifters? I'd get locked up! Who are you, anyway?"
US h/c p.200 "Astonishing," said Qu. "I don't know how you manage it."
UK h/c p.219 "Astonishing," said Qu. "He's part of the pattern now. I don't know how you manage it."
Here, Vimes has just been given back his cigar case by the dancing monks:
US h/c p.214 "The world moved. Vimes still felt like a drifting ship. But at the end of the tether there was now the tug of the anchor, pulling the ship around so that it faced the current."
UK h/c p.233 "The world moved. But now Vimes no longer felt like a drifting ship. Now, he felt the tug of the anchor, pulling him round to face the rising tide."
The "rising tide" has more meaning in context, as it is during the barricade-building scene, and the rising tide of resistance is happening.
That sort of thing is the reason I have bought both editions for some years now. It's getting harder to get the UK hardcovers now, and the last few I checked were identical. I'm hoping that the US editors have realized how foolish it is to make those little "I'm proving I'm an editor" changes, but it's a faint hope.
Fascinating. I have both first edition hardcovers, and in them, those passages are identical. There is no difference that I can find. US h/c edition p.69, UK h/c edition p.79.
There's a tiny difference a few paragraphs earlier: in the US edition it's Constable Colon, in the UK edition it's Lance-Corporal Colon. A page or so earlier, the excited abbot nearly swallowed his rusk in the UK, his biscuit in the US.
There's a tiny difference a few paragraphs earlier: in the US edition it's Constable Colon, in the UK edition it's Lance-Corporal Colon. A page or so earlier, the excited abbot nearly swallowed his rusk in the UK, his biscuit in the US.
I might have misunderstood the document in question (http://www.ankh-morpork.de/downloads/an ... FDM-WR.pdf)
On page 88 of night watch there't this piece of text supposedly not in the UK version (safe for the first sentence):
I only have the german fan-translation of the text that should be here, but it includes a little speech by Sweeper about "cut and paste". It's on page 75 of the PDF. I think this might be a case of a last-minute manuscript change by Pterry which did make it into one version but not the other.
On page 88 of night watch there't this piece of text supposedly not in the UK version (safe for the first sentence):
I only have the german fan-translation of the text that should be here, but it includes a little speech by Sweeper about "cut and paste". It's on page 75 of the PDF. I think this might be a case of a last-minute manuscript change by Pterry which did make it into one version but not the other.
Fascinating! As Granny might say, I can't abide the idea of any U.S. editor changing Pterry's original words, but in this context the U.S. edit actually makes more sense. At this point in the story Vimes is so used to being in the past (and enjoying it) that he is beginning to forget the life has in the future. After realizing this, he arrives at an existential crisis. The U.S. edit does a better job of showing how the cigar case didn't immediately solve this crisis, but provided him with something "real" to latch on to, and to direct him NOT to go with the flow (the current in this situation), which would have kept him in the past, but to go against it (as Vimes always does) to arrive, through struggle, at his destination. Pterry's original British words are less effective because they imply an 'instant cure', rather than the more dramatic "gradual change" of the U.S. version. And "rising tide" isn't as strong here, because it does suggest the barricade and the rebellion, when the thoughts that should be expressed here about the general "disorder" of this alternate timeline, which VImes must go against.
One does wonder if Pterry did look over the U.S. version at some point (or this edit was suggested by the editor to Pterry) and he decided to tweak some of this for the U.S> version.The U.S. version is written in Pterry's style, and I find it hard to believe that any editor would have changed the meaning while still maintaining the quality of the phrasing.
One does wonder if Pterry did look over the U.S. version at some point (or this edit was suggested by the editor to Pterry) and he decided to tweak some of this for the U.S> version.The U.S. version is written in Pterry's style, and I find it hard to believe that any editor would have changed the meaning while still maintaining the quality of the phrasing.
Just checked this in the 1st UK edition and yes it is totally different (it's page 84 of the original hardback by the way) however there is reason to believe that the original version is the one in the US edition not the other way around as the ISIS audiobook read by Stephen Briggs and recorded before the book came out has the passage as you quote above and he normally works off proof copies to get the audiobooks out as close as possible to the publication date of the printed versions. I don't have a proof copy of Night Watch so cannot check.
The version in the UK 1st edition reads as follows:
The version in the UK 1st edition reads as follows:
